Views of the Boston Harbor

Since it was my last day in Boston I decided to go take one last look at the Boston Harbor and walk along the water front.   It was a bit cloudy but really nice out.  The waterfront area is very walkable in fact there is actually an interconnected pathways and boardwalks long the waterline that is part of the Boston Harborwalk. There are blue signs along the walk to mark the area and you can get a map on their website. I just walked it without a map following the edge. On the harbor there are lots of places to go and explore that are family friendly and just fun for any age.  There are harbor cruises, whale watches, islands with old forts, islands with great picnic areas and hiking areas and much more.  (Ideas can be found on the Boston Harborwalk site.)  I have been to some of the islands in the past but didn't have time to go back.  But I know that it will always be there for a visit.

These pictures I took with my camera phone since I didn't have my camera with me.  I took them on the northern part of the harbor, it was a short walk from Faneuil Hall Marketplace were I started my harbor walk.  The marketplace not only has great shopping and restaurants but also has street performers and activities for the whole family.  I saw a juggling act, musicians and dancers as I was passing through.  It was a fun time overall.  I hope that I will be able to find similar kinds of places to go and see now that I am in Baltimore.  Come along and join in on the adventure, Meet Me Outdoors.

B'town to B'more

Going from B'town to B'more, both cities near or on a harbor that lead out (eventually) to the same ocean, but each have totally different views.  Coming from Cleveland where the metro-park system was known as the Emerald Necklace, Boston also had a park system by the same name.  Odd isn't it? While I have only had a chance to explore parts of Boston's Emerald Necklace most of it that followed the Charles River, and the Cleveland version slightly more so, I am looking forward to a new place to explore.  Seeing one harbor is not the same as seeing all and I am ready to see what is out there and will share my findings with you.

I know that readers of this blog-post live in various parts of the U.S. probably have your own places your regularly explore.  Some of you may have also traveled outside of your home location to other parts of the country or even the world that I have yet to see, and perhaps will be given the opportunity someday.

I hope all of you reading this have had the chance to take up some of my neighborhood challenges - Ten Step Challenge and the Once Around the Block adventure. There are stories that go with every adventure and every adventure has a story.  I have heard from some of you and hope to hear from more as well. You can respond by adding a comment below or by sending me an email.  So, please join in the fun and come Meet Me Outdoors.

Once Around the Block

If you have not taken the Ten Step Challange then go do that first to prepare yourself for this next challenge then come back and tell me about it.  For those of you who have done the Ten Step Challenge it is time to go beyond those ten steps and take on a new challenge.  Think of it as a mini-adventure.  This time let's go once around the block.  Some of you may have a larger block to go around, while others it's a tiny loop. If you live in a rural area you may choose to go into town and walk around the town square or even just once around the outside of your house. 

You may wonder what the challenge is in this, so I'll tell you. Your challenge is to take a look at your surroundings through new eyes. What I mean by this is you probably walk, drive or bike past one part of your block all the time without paying attention to your surroundings and everything becomes a routine.  Nothing changes, and you are likely going too fast to notice if anything changed at all.  I am also guessing that many of you reading this, myself included, focus only on the road they live on and not what happens on the other side of your street or even the street behind yours or in front of yours.  Why would you? I ask, why not?  Why not get to know your whole surroundings?  So go. Go walk around. Look at the houses, buildings, gardens, odd looking trees. Does your neighbor have a garden gnome on their lawn? A bird's nest in the big tree? Maybe a window box with some pretty flowers growing out of them?  (Remember, think safely about where you are going first before you venture out on your walk.)

I don't know what you may find going once around the block but I do know that your are not going to find out staying here at the computer and reading this. So go on and Meet Me Outdoors.

Looking from a different perspective

The other day I mentioned that I was going to an Observation Night at the Museum of Science in Boston, MA.  What amazed me most beside getting to see some celestial objects like the moon and some planets was seeing the Boston skyline at dusk, just after sunset. Of course my camera is not the best for taking night pictures I still wanted to take a couple to remind me of how cool it was.

Where the red is in the sky is where the sun went down, so the first picture was taken earlier than the second picture because there is more light along the horizon. These were taken from the roof of the Museum of Science's garage.  The tallest building on the left is the John Hancock Tower and the second tallest on the right is The Prudential Center, aka The Pru.  I actually went to the top of The Pru, for someone like me who is afraid of heights it was not so bad as long as I didn't look down. But to see it from this angle at night it was a different experience. The horizon is where the ground meets the sky it is also called a skyline.  What do you see along the horizon where you live? Do you have tall buildings, trees, houses, mountains? Do you live near a lake or ocean where you see the water and sky meet?  

That night I also tried to take a picture of Venus which is the really bright object in the sky in the 3rd picture.  It is much more exciting to see in person than in this picture.  So I do encourage you to go and look for it on your next clear night.  Venus is visible just as the Sun is setting in the western part of the sky.  Some times it is seen right before the Sun rises. This is why Venus is nicknamed "The Morning and The Evening Star," even though it is really a planet not a star.  It is bright enough to be seen in the city, you just have to find a spot to look for it where there are no buildings blocking your view.  There is a simple trick you can use to tell if an object in the sky is a star, a planet or airplane. Light traveling from a star has to travel many light years to get here and comes to our eyes in points of light, as these points of light travel through our atmosphere it bounces around giving it a twinkly appearance.  While light reflected off a planet comes to our eyes as disks of light since they are closer to us than the stars so they do not twinkle. An airplane will be moving faster across the sky and has blinking lights of different colors like green and red.

Go and discover what you see on your horizon.  Compare looking at night versus looking during the day. What changes?  Come along and Meet Me Outdoors.